This invention relates generally to medical imaging systems, and more particularly to a system and method for performing nuclear mammography imaging.
Different systems and methods for performing mammography imaging are known. For example, one conventional imaging system is a film screen mammography imaging. This type of mammography imaging system uses transmitted x-rays to produce an image of the breast. During the imaging procedure, a compression force is applied to a breast to improve image quality by reducing a thickness of the breast thereby spreading the breast tissue over a larger area. The reduction in the breast thickness, and spreading the breast over a larger area, facilitate reading of the projection radiographs, because the amount of “overlapping structures” within the imaged breast is minimized in the projection radiograph. This type of mammography imaging may not perform satisfactory imaging in women with dense breasts. Moreover, some patients may experience discomfort due to the compression force applied to the breast and lower patient acceptance may result in missed examinations, thereby possibly increasing the patient's risk that a serious medical condition may not be detected in a timely fashion.
Another conventional imaging system utilizes diagnostic nuclear imaging to identify radionuclide distribution in a subject, such as a human patient. Typically, one or more radiopharmaceuticals or radioisotopes are injected into the subject. The imaging system includes conventional gamma detectors that are placed adjacent to a surface of the subject to monitor and record emitted radiation. The monitored radiation data is reconstructed and/or displayed into an image representation of the radiopharmaceutical distribution within the subject. Generally, the spatial resolution of a gamma detector degrades with increasing distance between the imaged area/organ and the detector. Therefore, it is desirable to place the gamma detector as close as possible to the patient to facilitate minimizing the loss of image resolution. It is also desirable to place the detector so that only the breast and no other confounding structures are in the imaging field of view. However, the size of these conventional detectors allows only anterior-posterior imaging with sufficient proximity to the breast, and in this case the background activity from the thorax structures including the heart degrade the sensitivity for finding small lesions of the breast.
Sometimes, small cameras are used with other views to overcome the previous problem. For example the medial lateral oblique view may be used or a compression force may be used. For example, when utilizing one compact imaging system to image a patient's breast, a compression force is applied to the breast to secure the breast during imaging process. However, similar to the film screen mammography imaging system the compression force may cause some patients to experience discomfort and may not schedule any future examinations, thereby possibly increasing the patient's risk that a serious medical condition may not be detected in a timely fashion. Thus there is a need to avoid compression in an imaging modality. Furthermore, there is a need to contain the breast in the field of view of dedicated compact cameras configured for breast imaging, for example in medial lateral oblique views where gravity may pull the breast out of the field of view.